(Phys.org)—Two separate teams of researchers (one from Mexico, the other Sweden), have incited skepticism among the astronomy community by posting papers on the preprint server arXiv each describing a different large object they observed in the outer edges of the solar system. Both teams made their observations after reviewing data from ALMA—a cluster of radio dishes in the Chilean mountains.

One of the objects was found to be near W Aquilae in the night sky—the other adjacent to Alpha Centauri . Both groups report being skeptical at first regarding a faint glow, but monitored what they had seen nonetheless—to their surprise they found that the objects appeared to move relative to the stars behind them, which suggested they might be relatively close and that they might be orbiting the sun. Neither group was able to gain much evidence regarding the properties of the objects they had spied, because both of them were only able to make two observations, but both teams suggest there was enough data to allow for ruling out the object being an ordinary star.

The Swedish team nick-named the object they observed Gna, after a Nordic God known for its swiftness, and have told the press they had no intention of suggesting they had found the mythical Planet X which supposedly lies somewhere beyond Pluto. Instead they suggest it might be a large asteroid. The team from Mexico went a little further suggesting that the object they observed might possibly turn out to be a brown dwarf.

Norway – Record Rain Causes Flooding in South

Severe flooding has been reported in parts of southern Norway after heavy rain brought by storm Synne between 04 and 06 December 2015. Maudal in Gjesdal, Rogaland saw just under 300 mm of rain in 3 days.No injuries or deaths have been reported. However the flooding has caused some damage to roads, bridges and homes in Rogaland, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder counties. Around 100 families had to be evacuated from their homes in Eigersund, Rogaland county. Norway’s state broadcaster, NRK, reports that around 30 farms have also been severely hit, suffering major damage.
Floods in Eigersund, Norway, December 2015. Photo: Eigersund Kommune

The rain has now stopped but river levels remain high. Authorities in Sweden also report high river levels in western parts of Götaland and nothern part of Halland.

Eyes everywhere: NSA’s second tier spying partners identified

Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and several other EU countries were named among “third party partners” in the NSA-led global signal intelligence program, a new leak submitted by journalist Glenn Greenwald to Danish TV reveals.

According to the document, obtained by Swedish TV program ‘Mission: Investigate’, that has been probing Sweden’s participation in global spying operations, nine European countries were added to the list of NSA accomplices.

The “third party partners” to the Five Eyes nations has now grown to include nine states – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

The newly-leaked document from Edward Snowden is the first written confirmation of Denmark’s formal agreement with the NSA, the Copenhagen Post writes.

Denmark’s role in US spying scheme was labeled “very worrying” by Enhedslisten’s Pernille Skipper, Danish parliamentarian.

“When Denmark is one of the US intelligence services’ close allies, one must ask themselves what it is we are giving in return,” Skipper told public broadcaster DR.

“When you consider this along with the other revelations that have come out, which insinuate that the US systematically spies on residents throughout Europe in violation of very basic rights, then you can naturally fear that the collaboration between Denmark and the US means that Danes have been spied upon.”

The list of new NSA partners was made public last week as part of the new batch of NSA-documents from the Snowden-Greenwald collection. The ‘14-Eyes’ group, the document also revealed, send their staff for training to the US. The group is also known as the SIGINT Seniors Europe or SSEUR.

With focus on rehabilitation and more reasonable sentencing, nation shutters four state-run jails

– Jon Queally, staff writer

Prison numbers in Sweden, which have been falling by around 1% a year since 2004, dropped by 6% between 2011 and 2012 and are expected to do the same again both this year and next year. (Photograph: Paul Doyle/Alamy)As study after study (after study) in the United States over the last several decades have shown a prison population explosion that demands additional, larger, more expensive—and increasingly privatized—prisons, the trend in Sweden might hold a lesson on how to end the ever-expanding incarceration rate.

In fact, instead of building new prisons or holding steady with the number they have, the Swedish government—citing a rapid fall in demand—has now ordered the closure of four prisons.

“We have seen an out-of-the-ordinary decline in the number of inmates,” Nils Öberg, the head of Sweden’s prison and probation services, explained to the Guardian. “Now we have the opportunity to close down a part of our infrastructure that we don’t need at this point of time.”

As the Guardian reports:

Prison numbers in Sweden, which have been falling by around 1% a year since 2004, dropped by 6% between 2011 and 2012 and are expected to do the same again both this year and next, Öberg said.

As a result, the prison service has this year closed down prisons in the towns of Åby, Håja, Båtshagen, and Kristianstad, two of which will probably be sold and two of which will be passed for temporary use to other government authorities.

Öberg said that while nobody knew for sure why prison numbers had dropped so steeply, he hoped that Sweden’s liberal prison approach, with its strong focus on rehabilitating prisoners, had played a part.

Swedish authorities explain that this more “liberal” approach includes both the rehabilitation cited, but also a new sentencing structure that has reduced the terms given for drug offenses, theft, and other less serious crimes.

At 112th in the world, Sweden has long been rated well in indexes that calculate the percentage of its population the remains incarcerated. In contrast, the United States has the most heavily-jailed population in the world.

Again, from the Guardian:

According to data collected by the International Centre for Prison Studies, the five countries with the highest prison population are the US, China, Russia, Brazil and India.

The US has a prison population of 2,239,751, equivalent to 716 people per 100,000. China ranks second with 1,640,000 people behind bars, or 121 people per 100,000, while Russia’s inmates are 681,600, amounting to 475 individuals per 100,000.

And, as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported earlier this year, the U.S. prison population continues to rise at an unprecedented rate, both federally and across many states. Those rates lead to over-crowding, growing costs, and increasingly unsafe institutions. As an Al-Jazeerainvestigation, following a report from the Government Accountability Office, found:

The overcrowded facilities have contributed to a multibillion dollar demand for private prisons. The industry argues it is helping the government save money. But others argue that for-profit prisons only increase the incentive to incarcerate more people.

Almost half of those incarcerated in federal prisons are drug offenders. Another 16 percent of inmates are in prison for offences related to weapons, explosives and arson. Those convicted of immigration violations make up 12 percent of the federal prison population.

And the impact of mass imprisonment spreads far beyond the prison walls.

Sociologists have found that the rise in incarceration rates reduce social mobility and ensure both prisoners and their families remain trapped in a cycle of poverty.

______________________________________________

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Rescue workers stand next to a car crushed by a falling tree near Rheibach, Germany. Photograph: Axel Vogel/Corbis

The death toll across Europe from storms that began sweeping the continent on Sunday has reached at least 12, with Britain, Germany and the Netherlands among the hardest hit.

Four people died in the south of England after winds gusting up to nearly 100mph felled trees, and another four were killed on Monday in Germany, adding to two deaths at sea off the German coast on Sunday.

In Amsterdam a woman was killed and another person injured when a tree by a canal was blown over. Other injuries were reported around the city from falling debris.

In Denmark a man died after he was hit by a flying brick north of Copenhagen. In France a woman was still missing on Monday night after being swept out to sea from a cliff at Belle-Ile, Brittany.

Transport infrastructure took a battering across the continent. Sustained winds of more than 75mph caused the cancellation of 50 flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, Europe’s fourth largest, and there were delays at Europe’s busiest port in Rotterdam.

Storm Sweeps Europe After Battering Britain

As a deadly storm moves from Britain to mainland Europe, a tree falls on a car in Amsterdam, killing a woman.

Large waves break against the dyke at the port of Boulogne in northern France.

People watch a boat from the shore as a storm passes over the beach in Scheveningen in the Netherlands.

An uprooted tree falls on a car at the Ruysdaelkade canal in Amsterdam.

Thirteen-floor high scaffolding comes down due to the heavy winds in Merksem, Antwerpen.

Some 10 people have died in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Scandinavia after a fatal storm that struck Britain swept eastwards to northern Europe.

A Danish man was killed near Copenhagen by a collapsing wall, a woman was killed by falling trees in Amsterdam and a 47-year-old woman was found dead after being swept out to sea during a cliff walk on Belle Ile in France.

At least seven people died in Germany with falling trees killing several drivers. One man also drowned and a 66-year-old woman died when a wall collapsed on her, German media reported.

Hurricane-strength winds cut power supplies and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and train journeys across the continent.

Southern Sweden was hit by torrential rain, and winds up to 84mph (136kph) blew down trees, blocking roads and bringing down power lines, leaving around than 50,000 homes without electricity.

As evening fell there were no reports of injuries in Sweden but widespread reports of property damage.

11 dead as storm lashes northern Europe

LONDON—At least 11 people were killed on Monday as a fierce storm tore across northern Europe, causing mass disruption to transport.

Four people were killed in Britain and three in Germany as heavy rain and high winds battered the region. The storm also claimed two victims in The Netherlands, one in France and one in Denmark.

Rough conditions at sea also forced rescuers to abandon the search for a 14-year-old boy who disappeared while playing in the surf on a southern English beach on Sunday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described the loss of life as “hugely regrettable.”

Winds reached 99 miles (159 kilometers) per hour on the Isle of Wight off the southern English coast, according to Britain’s Met Office national weather center, while more than 500,000 homes in Britain and France were left without power.

Heavy rain and winds of 80 mph elsewhere brought down thousands of trees and left hundreds of passengers trapped in planes at Copenhagen airport.

In Britain, a 17-year-old girl died after a tree fell on the parked caravan where she was sleeping, while a 51-year-old father of three died when a tree hit his car, police said.

The bodies of a man and a woman were later found in the rubble of three houses in London that collapsed in an explosion thought to have been caused by a gas pipe being ruptured in the storm.

A small fire broke out at the Ringhals nuclear power plant in western Sweden on Wednesday morning, less than a day after the reactor had been restarted. The blaze started shortly after 9am at Ringhals’ Reactor 1 and was extinguished less than an hour later. “The smoke came from oil inside the insulation on one or several of the pipes in the turbine hall,” emergency services spokesman Roger Banck said. However, the reactor continues to operate at half capacity and it remains unclear how long it will continue to do so. “Now we have to disassemble certain parts in order to access where the fire took place and see what the damage is and we don’t know how long that will take,” Ringshals spokesman Gosta Larsen said. Ringhals’ Reactor 1 was restarted on Tuesday after having been shut down the day before due to a broken meter. The reactor had been closed for inspection for the previous five weeks and it was undergoing a test run when the meter malfunction was discovered. Reactor 4, which also remains shuttered for a safety review, is supposed to be restarted on Sunday.

18 Signs That Massive Economic Problems Are Erupting All Over The Planet

By Michael, on June 2nd, 2013

In fact, a whole bunch of recent polls and surveys show that the American people are starting to feel much better about how the U.S. economy is performing. Unfortunately, the false prosperity that we are currently enjoying is not going to last much longer. Just look at what is happening in Europe. The eurozone is now in the midst of the longest recession that it has ever experienced. Just look at what is happening over in Asia. Economic growth in India is the lowest that it has been in a decade and the Japanese financial system is beginning to spin wildly out of control. One of the only places on the entire planet where serious economic problems have not already erupted is in the United States, and that is only because we have “kicked the can down the road” by recklessly printing money and by borrowing money at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, the “sugar high” produced by those foolish measures is starting to wear off. We are going to experience a massive amount of economic pain along with the rest of the world – it is just a matter of time.

But for the moment, there are a lot of skeptics out there.

For the moment, there are a lot of people that are declaring that the problems of the past have been fixed and that we are heading for incredibly bright economic times ahead.

Unfortunately, those people appear to be purposely ignoring the economic horror that is breaking out all over the globe.

The following are 18 signs that massive economic problems are erupting all over the planet…

#1 The eurozone is now in the midst of its longest recession ever. Economic activity in the eurozone has declined for six quarters in a row.

“I’ve sent CVs everywhere, I come to the unemployment agency every day, for 3 or 4 hours to look for work as a truck driver and there’s never anything,” said 42-year old Djamel Sami, who has been unemployed for a year, leaving a job agency in Paris.

#7 Unemployment in the eurozone as a whole has just hit a brand new all-time record high of 12.2 percent.

#8 Youth unemployment continues to soar to unprecedented heights in Europe. The following is from an article that was recently posted on the website of the Guardian that detailed how bad things are getting in some of the worst countries…

In Greece, 62.5% of young people are out of work, in Spain it’s 56.4%, then Portugal with 42.5%, and then Italy with 40.5%.

#9 Youth unemployment is being partially blamed for the worst rioting that Sweden has seen in many years. The following is how the Daily Mail described the riots…

Sweden is reeling after a third night of rioting in largely run-down immigrant areas of the capital Stockholm.

In the last 48 hours violence has spread to at least ten suburbs with mobs of youths torching hundreds of cars and clashing with police.

It is Sweden’s worst disorder in years and has shocked the country and provoked a debate on how Sweden is coping with youth unemployment and an influx of immigrants.

#10 An astounding 10 percent of all banking deposits were pulled out of banks in Cyprus during the month of April alone.

Eurozone unemployment reaches new record high in April

The seasonally-adjusted rate for April was 12.2%, up from 12.1% the month before.

An extra 95,000 people were out of work in the 17 countries that use the euro, taking the total to 19.38 million.

Both Greece and Spain have jobless rates above 25%. The lowest unemployment rate is in Austria at 4.9%.

The European Commission’s statistics office, Eurostat, said Germany had an unemployment rate of 5.4% while Luxembourg’s was 5.6%.

The highest jobless rates are in Greece (27.0% in February 2013), Spain (26.8%) and Portugal (17.8%).

In France, Europe’s second largest economy, the number of jobless people rose to a new record high in April.

“We do not see a stabilisation in unemployment before the middle of next year,” said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Credit Agricole in Paris. “The picture in France is still deteriorating.”

‘Social crisis’

Youth unemployment remains a particular concern. In April, 3.6 million people under the age of 25 were out of work in the eurozone, which translated to an unemployment rate of 24.4%.

Figures from the Italian government showed 40.5% of young people in Italy are unemployed.

Europe’s already dismal jobs situation has deteriorated further. If we needed a reminder of the lingering effects of the eurozone financial crisis, it is to be seen in the jobs data.

The general pattern is that the largest increases in unemployment over the last year were in countries at the centre of the crisis – Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. There was also a sharp increase in Slovenia, a country seen as a possible future candidate for a financial rescue.

The main exception to the pattern was Ireland, another country receiving a bailout, where unemployment nonetheless fell by almost one and half percentage points in twelve months.

The figures also highlight the “lost generation” concern that is, or should be, causing some lost sleep for political leaders. Unemployment among young people is approaching one in four across the eurozone and it is 40% or higher in a few countries – Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

“We have to deal with the social crisis, which is expressed particularly in spreading youth unemployment, and place it at the centre of political action,” said Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano.

In the 12 months to April, 1.6 million people lost their jobs in the eurozone.

While the jobless figure in the eurozone climbed for the 24th consecutive month, the unemployment rate for the full 27-member European Union remained at 11%.

The eurozone is in its longest recession since it was created in 1999. At 1.4%, inflation is far below the 2% target set by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Consumer spending remains subdued. Figures released on Friday showed that retail sales in Germany fell 0.4% in April compared with the previous month.

Greece’s young: Dreams on hold as fight for jobs looms

By Mark LowenBBC News, Athens

Mark Lowen looks at the toughest equation Greece has to solve

Greece’s school exam season has arrived. But for many now facing the final-year tests known as the Panhellenics, the stress is twofold: last-minute cramming and the knowledge that they’ll soon enter the worst jobs climate in Europe.

At 64.2%, youth unemployment in Greece is the highest in the continent. Those between the ages of 16 and 25 are now the crisis generation.

At the Spoudi school in Athens, dreams have been put on hold. The school leavers longed for a stable job, for a future full of opportunity. But instead, unemployment and uncertainty beckon.

The economy won’t recover because the educated ones will go abroad and only the older people will stay here”

Christina ZahagouLaw graduate, 23

In a final maths class, students pore over complex algebra problems. But how to stay positive in today’s Greece might just be the most difficult equation to solve.

“I’m not sure about my future,” says Nathalie Scholden, an 18-year-old who hopes to study economics. “I think I won’t stay in Greece because there’s high unemployment and bad salaries. A lot of kids my age feel the same. If we’re here and nobody gets the life they want, why should we stay?”

Among the other students, few are optimistic. One thinks of leaving Athens for the countryside, another of going into farming because of a lack of opportunities.

“In Greece today you can’t do what you want,” says Alexandros Delakouras, 17. “It will be very difficult to get a job in my country but I will try hard.” He adds with a smile: “Maybe, with God’s help, I’ll succeed.”

Before Greece’s first bailout three years ago – and the spending cuts that ensued – unemployment in the country was under 12%. Now it’s at 27%.

And among the youth, it’s more than doubled from around 31% in May 2010. Recession has hit hard but it’s the austerity demanded by the country’s international lenders that has had such a devastating impact.

Brain drain

Doing the sums

In Greece, 64.2% of 16 to 25-year olds are out of work

This has risen from 31.2% three years ago when Greece received its first international bailout

The economy is expected to stay in recession for the sixth consecutive year in 2013

Unemployment continues to rise and is not expected to start falling until 2015, the Greek central bank says

And so the brightest, like 23-year-old law graduate Christina Zahagou, are leaving. Greek emigration to Germany jumped by more than 40% last year. She is now following suit after failing to find work.

Sweden Riots Put Faces to Statistics as Stockholm Burns

By Niklas Magnusson & Johan Carlstrom – May 27, 2013 2:25 AM CT

A week of riots in Stockholm has torn a hole in Sweden’s image as a beacon of social harmony.

In Husby, a suburb north of the capital where 60 percent of residents were born outside Sweden and unemployment is twice the national average, youths torched cars, schools and other buildings in a show of anger that has unsettled one of Europe’s richest nations. The riots spread to more than 10 other suburbs in Stockholm.

A burning car set on fire in the Stockholm suburb of Kista after youths rioted in several different suburbs around Stockholm for a third executive night, late May 21, 2013. Photograph: Fredrik Sandberg via AP Photo/Scanipx Sweden

People exit Husby subway station to attend a demonstration against police violence and vandalism in the Stockholm suburb of Husby on May 22, 2013. Sweden’s youth unemployment rate was 23.6 percent last year– about three times the national average — according to the statistics office. Photographer: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images

“Exclusion, poverty and unemployment” are the main causes of the riots, Yves Zenou, a professor at Stockholm University who has done research on urban economics and migration issues, said in a May 24 interview. “They feel excluded from Swedish society. Many are not in employment, many because of discrimination, and many have low education levels.”

The unrest has shocked Sweden, where the economic policies of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt helped the AAA rated nation emerge as a haven from the debt crisis raging across southern Europe. Yet Sweden’s aggregate wealth has hidden rifts in the economy as polices have failed to catch a demographic now taking to the streets to show its desperation.

Young people need “jobs as well as something to do in their spare time,” Iqra Siddiqui, a 16-year-old living in Hallunda, a suburb in south Stockholm, said yesterday in an interview outside the Skaerholmen subway station. “Another problem is that parents don’t know what their kids are up to.”

Police Detentions

Sweden’s youth unemployment rate was 23.6 percent last year — about three times the national average — according to the statistics office. A report this month by the Public Employment Services showed that about 77,000 people between 16 and 29 years haven’t studied or worked over the past three years, suggesting even larger hidden unemployment. By comparison, youth unemployment was about 153,000 last year, according to the agency.

Police, who as of May 24 had detained 29 people since the riots started on May 19, say most of those involved are about 20 years old. Their plight underscores how Europe’s economic pain is hitting young people hardest. According to Luxembourg-based Eurostat, youth unemployment in the 27-nation European Union reached 23.5 percent in March, versus 16.2 percent in the U.S.

Scenes outside Stockholm this week replayed images of youth unrest across Europe since the global economic crisis started. In 2011, riots that started in north London also spread to Manchester and the Midlands, in the worst youth unrest in the U.K. since the 1980s. Paris has seen similar violence.

‘Ordinary Night’

While unrest also spread to other towns over the weekend, including Oerebro and Linkoeping, violence in the Swedish capital have started to subside.

Last night was like “an ordinary night,” according to police spokesman Kjell Lindgren. Fewer than 10 cars were set on fire and there were no reports of stones being thrown at emergency services and no major vandalism. Between Saturday and Sunday, about 20 cars were set on fire and a school in a southern suburb was vandalized. Rocks were also thrown at police in the Vaarberg neighbourhood.

Reinfeldt, who gained power in 2006 on promises of bringing more people into the labor market, has struggled to carry that pledge over to immigrants and young adults. In Husby, an area dotted by concrete high rises, the number of people relying on state assistance is more than triple the average for Stockholm.

Sweden has suffered similar episodes of violence before, including in the southern city of Malmoe in 2008 as well as Gothenburg.

The Cause

Megafonen, a Husby advocacy group, traces the outbreak of Stockholm’s riots to the police shooting of a local 69-year-old man originally from Portugal. Police brutality and racist slurs have exacerbated tensions, the group says.

Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest daily newspaper, has questioned those claims, as a columnist asked for specific examples of brutality and proof of racial insensitivity. The newspaper reported on May 24 that about half the people arrested on suspicion of rioting in Husby came from outside the neighborhood, and half of them had criminal records.

In response, the advocacy group posted witness accounts of police brutality and racism on its website.

“Megafonen doesn’t start fires, we don’t believe this is the right method for long-term change,” said the group. “But we know that it’s a reaction to deficiencies in society. Unemployment, inadequate schools and structural racism are reasons behind what we are seeing today.”

Small Group

The largest immigrant group in Sweden is from Finland, followed by Iraq and Poland. In Husby, of residents with a foreign background, those who were born abroad or have two non-Swedish parents, 80 percent have heritage from either Asia or Africa, according to city statistics.

Residents are quick to point out that the violence is being carried out by a small group that doesn’t speak for most people living there. Community groups have taken to the streets to help ease tensions and restore calm, which was successful over the weekend.

The top Swedish prosecutor pursuing sexual assault charges against Julian Assange has abruptly left the case and one of Mr Assange’s accusers has sacked her lawyer.

The turmoil in the Swedish Prosecution Authority’s effort to extradite Mr Assange comes as another leading Swedish judge prepares to deliver an unprecedented public lecture in Australia next week on the WikiLeaks publisher’s case.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority wants to extradite Mr Assange to have him questioned in Stockholm in relation to sexual assault allegations by two women.

Alleged victim: Political activist Anna Ardin.

Fairfax Media has obtained Swedish court documents that reveal high-profile Swedish prosecutor Marianne Nye has unexpectedly left Mr Assange’s case from Wednesday, and has been replaced by a less-experienced prosecutor, Ingrid Isgren. The reasons for the change have not been disclosed yet.

The lead Swedish prosecutor pursuing sexual assault charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is no longer handling the case, media reports revealed. Her departure comes as a top Swedish judge is set to speak publicly on the ‘Assange affair.’

Recent court documents have revealed that starting Wednesday, high-profile Swedish prosecutor Marianne Nye will no longer be at the helm of the case against Assange, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Nye will be replaced by her far less experienced colleague Ingrid Isgren; the reasons for her departure have not been disclosed.

However, according to a Swedish newspaper report, Nye “has not quit the Assange case formally rather that there is a new ‘investigator,'” WikiLeaks tweeted on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Anna Ardin, one of two women who accused Julian Assange of sex crimes, also moved to fire her controversial lawyer Claes Borgstrom late last month after she lost faith in his ability to represent her.

Ardin charged that Borgstrom was more interested in being in the media spotlight than providing her legal counsel, and has often referred her inquiries to his secretary or assistant. The court has approved Ardin’s new lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Borgstrom reportedly supported his former client’s decision, saying that “in cases concerning sexual offenses, it is particularly important that the plaintiff has confidence in the lawyer representing her,” Swedish tabloid Expressen quoted him as saying.

News of the legal shakeup in the Assange case comes less than a week before Swedish Supreme Court judge Stefan Lindskog’s lecture at the University of Adelaide on the “Assange affair, and freedom of speech, from the Swedish perspective.”

Assange blasted Justice Lindskog – who is chair of the Supreme Court of Sweden, the country’s highest court of appeal – for his decision to publicly discuss the case.

“If an Australian High Court judge came out and spoke on a case the court expected or was likely to judge, it would be regarded as absolutely outrageous,” he told Fairfax media.

Ecuador raises Julian Assange case with Labour

Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy since June 2012. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Ecuadorean diplomats have raised the case of Julian Assange with the Labour party as part of attempts to lay the groundwork for a resolution of the diplomatic standoff between Britain and the South American state over the WikiLeaks’ founder.

As part of its continuing search for an end to the impasse, Ecuador has been seeking a commitment from the coalition that it would not support Assange’s onward extradition to the US should he choose to go to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.

In an indication that the Ecuadoreans are now also setting their sights on a possible change of government after the 2015 election, Ecuador’s ambassador, Ana Alban, raised Assange’s case during a meeting with the shadow foreign minister, Kerry McCarthy.

The meeting had been requested by Ecuador to discuss environmental issues and bilateral trade, and the Labour side were taken by surprise when the Australian’s case was raised by the Ecuadoreans towards the end of the meeting.

A Labour source was eager to distance the party from the issue, saying: “The meeting was on the basis of a discussion about other issues and was one part of a series of regular contact meetings with foreign governments in London.

Americans who received swine flu vaccines are at risk for paralysis disorders

Wednesday, March 20, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) The federal government has once again been exposed for lying about the safety of the infamous swine flu vaccine, also known as H1N1. According to a new study published in the journal The Lancet, people who received the swine flu vaccine during the 2009-2010 pandemic hoax were at an elevated risk of developing a potentially-deadly paralysis disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, or GBS.

Based on data collected from six different adverse event reporting systems, including the core vaccine safety datalink and several new surveillance systems created by Medicare and the U.S. Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs, researchers found that among the 23 million people who were vaccinated during the scare, an additional 1.6 cases of GBS were observed per one million people vaccinated.

According to statistics presented by TIME.com, one in 100,000 people is said to develop GBS, which is a relatively small amount overall. But the widespread issuance of the H1N1 vaccine was responsible for triggering an additional 77 reported cases of the autoimmune disorder, some of which manifested up to 91 days after individuals received the vaccine.

The findings contrast sharply with false reassurances made back in 2009 by many so-called medical experts. Dr. Paul A. Offit, the infamous “vaccine expert” who outspokenly believes children can safely receive 10,000 vaccinations at once without issue, is quoted in a 2009 article in The New York Times (NYT) as doubting any link between the swine flu vaccine and GBS.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/health/09vaccine.html)

But the numbers speak for themselves, and they more than likely represent just a small fraction of the total number of vaccine injuries caused by the swine flu vaccine. After all, adverse event reporting systems are believed to represent as few as one percent of the total number of vaccine injuries that actually occur, the vast majority of which never get reported.

Increased Risk Of Sleep Disorder In Children Who Received Swine Flu Vaccine

Article Date: 26 Feb 2013 – 16:00 PST

Medical News Today

Current ratings for:
Increased Risk Of Sleep Disorder In Children Who Received Swine Flu Vaccine

Results consistent with findings from Finland and Sweden, but may still be overestimated

A study published on bmj.com today finds an increased risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents who received the A/H1N1 2009 influenza vaccine (Pandemrix) during the pandemic in England.

The results are consistent with previous studies from Finland and Sweden and indicate that the association is not confined to Scandinavian populations. However, the authors stress that the risk may still be overestimated, and they call for longer term monitoring of the cohort of children and adolescents exposed to Pandemrix to evaluate the exact level of risk.

In 2009, pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus spread rapidly, resulting in millions of cases and over 18,000 deaths in over 200 countries. In England the vaccine Pandemrix was introduced in October 2009. By March 2010, around one in four (24%) of healthy children aged under 5 and just over a third (37%) aged 2-15 in a risk group had been vaccinated.

In August 2010 concerns were raised in Finland and Sweden about a possible association between narcolepsy and Pandemrix. And in 2012 a study from Finland reported a 13-fold increased risk in children and young people aged 4-19.

But a lack of reported cases in other countries led to speculation that any possible association might be restricted to these Scandinavian populations.

Swine Flu Vaccine Linked To Rare Paralyzing Disease

A new study finds that the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine in the U.S., which was given out in 2009, was associated with a small increased risk of developing the rare paralyzing disease Guillain-Barré syndrome. However, the authors note that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.

Guillain Barré syndrome is a disorder which affects the peripheral nervous system, it is characterized as symmetrical weakness, usually affecting the lower limbs first and then progressing to other parts of the body.

The syndrome occurs when the body attacks nerves which are essential for movement and respiration. Although the condition is serious and can take months to recover from, almost 80% of patients end up making a full recovery.

The study, which was published in The Lancet, aimed to identify whether there was any link between the mass 2009 H1N1 vaccination programe in the USA and increased risk of developing Guillain Barré syndrome.

They gathered data from six different adverse event monitoring systems to evaluate the safety of the H1N1 vaccine. The researchers, led by Dr Daniel Salmon, of the National Vaccine Program Office, US Department of Health and Human Services, looked at the prevalence of Guillain-Bare syndrome among the 23 million people who were vaccinated.

Friends and Sponsors

The Animal Rescue Site

The Hunger Site – Your click helps to feed the hungry

Wheatgrass Kits.com

FAIR USE NOTICE

The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific, environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal or technical advice.

Any materials (ie. graphics, articles , commentary) that are original to this blog are copyrighted and signed by it's creator. Said original material may be shared with attribution. Please respect the work that goes into these items and give the creator his/her credit. Just as we share articles , graphics and photos always giving credit to their creators when available. Credit and a link back to the original source is required.

If you have an issue with anything posted here or would prefer we not use it . Please contact me. Any items that are requested to be removed by the copyright owner will be removed immediately. No threats needed or lawsuit required. If there is a problem and you do not wish your work to be showcased then we will happily find an alternative from the many sources readily available from creators who would find it amenable to having their work presented to the subscribers of this feed.